Over the past decade, substantial developments have been made in the micro-manipulation of fluids in fields such as electronic printing technology using inkjet printers. Currently there is a wide variety of highly-efficient inkjet printing systems in use, which are capable of dispensing ink in a rapid and accurate manner onto paper sheets or other relatively flat media such as envelopes or labels.
Typically, an inkjet printing system utilizes a platen to which a paper sheet or other relatively flat and flexible medium is transported by friction utilizing various motors, gears, wheels, shafts and mounts. This medium transport mechanism, typically, provides the movement enabling the medium to be acquired from a tray and then advanced through a print zone by pushing, pulling, or carrying the medium. The print zone typically locates the medium relative to the printhead. A nearly flat print zone is, typically, utilized because the two-dimensional extent of typical nozzle layouts would result in varying firing distances if the medium or medium support has to much curvature. A carriage holding one or more print cartridges, having one or more fluid ejector heads, is, typically, supported by a slide bar, or similar mechanism within the system, and physically propelled along the slide bar to allow the carriage to be translationally reciprocated or scanned back and forth across the medium. When a swath of ink dots has been completed, the medium is moved an appropriate distance along the medium sheet axis, in preparation for the next swath.
The ability, to utilize fluid ejectors and fluid dispensing systems, to dispense discrete deposits of a material onto the surface of media of various shapes and flexibility, in specified locations, would open up a wide variety of applications that are currently impractical.